Politician-builder murder bid: Four Ravi Pujari men held with weapons

Mumbai:Four members of the Ravi Pujari gang, who were given contract to kill a city builder-politician and cable operator have been arrested by the city crime branch. The weapons to carry out the murders were procured from Meerut.

The arrested quartet has been identified as Delhi residents Sanjeev Vashistha, 32, Manishkumar Pandey, 27 and Dombivli residents Rajesh Yadav, 40 and Mahendra Dive, 29.

According to deputy commissioner of police, detection, Dhananjay Kulkarni, on receipt of specific information, that a few criminals would be arriving near R Mall in Mulund (W) on Monday evening, a trap was laid. They were apprehended as soon as they arrived at the spot. The police seized two pistols, 15 live rounds and their mobile phones.

"Their questioning revealed that they were given supari to bump off Dombivli corporator Ramesh Mhatre from Shiv Sena. Mhatre is also a builder. The supari was given by a professional rival," said a police officer.

"The shooters were given Rs1.90 lakh initially of which Rs1 lakh was spent for purchasing weapons from Meerut. They were promised another Rs10 lakh on the completion of the job. They were also supposed to bump off a cable operator from the suburbs," said senior inspector Vinayak Vast from the Anti-Extortion Cell.

"Two of the accused were also involved and wanted in the murder of a Dombivli builder Jaywant Mhatre in 2005. The shooters were supposed to conduct a recce but were apprehended before that. They were also involved in a case wherein a carbine was caught by the city police in 2014," the officer said.